Django Django – Django, Django (Because Music) *****

Before you even start to think of musical connections with this new-on-the-scene band, Django Django, and the well-respected jazz musician, Django Reinhardt, let me reassure you that the name is the only association you will be able to find. This is something else entirely. As debut albums go, this one has got to be up there in the top league. A beautiful blend of adventurous rock-pop with backbeat rhythms taken from all over the place, this will please your ear on first listening. These four musicians have been putting this one together for quite a while with absolutely no pressure from pushy record labels to get it completed. This has allowed them the time to make it sound exactly how they wanted it to, with great success. Be prepared to hear a lot more from them in the future.

Nigel Goodman, 54, teacher, Heaton

Anne Marie Hurst – Day Of All Days (Jungle) **

This is like listening to a slightly average pub-rock band. The songs are simple in structure and the majority of the guitar solos seem to revolve solely around the basic blues scale, which doesn’t fit into the style of music. I don’t think Keighley’s Anne Marie Hurst has a particularly strong voice either and I find her to be more of a rock vocalist than a goth singer (as in her previous bands – Skeletal Family and Ghost Dance). This album may well have been recorded at Paul Weller’s studio but it still sounds like an album that is still in its demo stages to me.

Russ Petcher, 36, bassist, Low Moor